Grant will move project forward
By Joey Berlin
Originally published 01:04 p.m., March 18, 2008
Updated 01:04 p.m., March 18, 2008
The City of Emporia was one of five Kansas cities to receive a Community Capacity Building grant from the Kansas Department of Commerce, the department announced Monday in a news release.
Emporia Main Street Director Kayla Oney said the $15,000 the city would receive would go toward the Community Initiated Development study for downtown development. She said the grant would pay for about three-quarters of the study.
Joe Monaco, public information officer for the Department of Commerce, said the grant money came from special community development enhancement funds approved last year by the state Legislature.
The Community Capacity Building grants are awarded to cities or counties with fewer than 50,000 residents to aid in collaborative community development planning. A total of $100,000 was distributed to the City of Emporia, the City of Coffeyville, the City of Garden City, Hoisington Main Street, and Independence Main Street.
The Community Capacity Building grants are the first awards from the program since 2005; the program had been on hiatus because of a lack of funds, Monaco said.
“We got a number of applicants, and we thought Emporia was definitely one of the handful of strongest ones, along with those other ones that we granted awards to,” Monaco said.